A convicted poacher accused of selling abalone to a San Francisco restaurant and divers accused of illegally harvesting the mollusks from the North C oast were arrested Thursday in a statewide crackdown on poaching.
The state Department of Fish and Game called the six raids Thursday one of the largest abalone and sturgeon poaching busts in state history.
Two Fort Bragg men were among 17 people arrested during raids in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, Fort Bragg and Mission Viejo.
Lance Robles of Fort Bragg, one of those arrested, is a former commercial abalone diver. Robles, 43, is accused of illegally harvesting red abalone from the Mendocino coast and selling it to the China House Restaurant in San Francisco.
Robles faces prosecution on two felony counts of conspiracy to harvest abalone from a closed area and sell it commercially, as well as misdemeanors for illegally catching and selling abalone.
Robles was convicted twice in the past decade for similar violations, officials said.
State officials also arrested his brother, Leroy Robles, 41, of Fort Bragg. He is accused of selling abalone to Bob's Sushi in San Francisco and faces two felony and one misdemeanor charge.
Three suspects are still sought.
"We cannot allow lawbreakers to bring this valuable species to ruin," state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a written statement. "That is why I will criminally prosecute poachers, and the restaurateurs that buy from them, to the fullest extent of the law."
The raids were meant to stem an increase in black-market sales of increasingly endangered fish taken from prohibited areas, officials said.
Sport fishing for red abalone is allowed but is highly regulated and permitted only north of San Francisco Bay. Poaching depletes one of the few thriving natural habitats for the mollusks left, officials said.
Some of the arrests involved alleged poaching of sturgeon, sought after for pricey caviar.
Caviar can fetch up to $165 a pound on the black market, and game officials said the fish is commanding a greater price recently because of short supplies of Russian caviar since 2000.
"The poaching of these resources is a big problem," Fish and Game spokesman Steve Martarano said. "This can be lucrative. We're making every effort to show that we won't tolerate it."
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Sunday, Jul 02, 2006 06:19P
People like this know better but also know that they will get a slap on the wrist and probation that they will ignore...lock them up at least one year for every illegal fish they have...I say
Friday, Jun 30, 2006 01:47P
Hope they go to prison, while they are getting butt raped think about raping the ocean
